The impetus for such crisis, according to Kristol, is the economic and cultural collapse of the liberal welfare state to which Democrats cling with a political death grip (my terminology).
Kristol simply is giving voice to what so many of us already knew.
Barack Obama was not elected because of a progressive political shift in the nation. The nation remains a country which believes, according to polling by James Carville and Stan Greenberg, that:
"The best way to improve our economy and create jobs is to cut government spending and cut taxes so businesses can prosper and the private sector can start creating jobs."Yet everything the Democrats do goes in the opposite direction.
Not to belabor the point made here hundreds of times, but over two thousand pages of Obamacare legislation will result in several thousand pages of regulations which will control the most intimate and important aspects of our lives; cap-and-trade legislation and regulations will control the means of production; financial regulation has devolved into social planning; and it goes on and on.
We did not need to reach this point.
What should have been a passing financial crisis has been used by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress to achieve what -- in the famous words of Rahm Emanuel -- could not otherwise be achieved.
Democrats took advantage of a crisis, and then doubled-down by massively increasing our national debt to advantage preferred political constituencies.
The answer should have been to grow the pie, not to redistribute the slices, but that alternative is off the table with Democrats in control.
"Free the economy" should be the chant.
We are coming to the point at which Americans will have to choose sides. Will it be the bottom-up free enterprise model upon which this country was built, or the top-down command economy in which Washington, D.C. politicians and government employees centrally plan the economy and our lives?
Whatever the imperfections of our economic system, Americans clearly do not want the alternative.
Democrats will pay the price politicially for kicking the nation when it was down, for using a crisis to force through what the American people did not want, and for insulting those who objected.
The Democratic death grip is about to be broken. Because we still have choices.
Update: This editorial in The Las Vegas Review-Journal (h/t The Daily Caller) made a similar point, in the wake of Obama's fundraising trip to help bail out Harry Reid:
--------------------------------------------The fact is, President Obama once again left behind a sinking feeling that neither he nor Sen. Reid have a clue how to pull this country out of its current dire economic straits.
Oh, they want to spend more tax money propping up the jobs of unionized state and local government workers -- the president bragged, "We fought to keep Nevada teachers, firefighters, and police officers on the job" -- at precisely the time state and local governments should be slashing their bloated budgets.
And where will that money come from? Big tax hikes on the very people who would otherwise be out there creating real, productive jobs -- private businesses.
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Definition: socialism - "the top-down command economy in which Washington, D.C. politicians and government employees centrally plan the economy and our lives"
ReplyDeleteThat is their end-game, with narcissist-in-chief Obama as the "head" of the government. Unless, of course, we experience complete collapse and the US as we know it ceases to exist. That was the plan of the Weather Underground, according to their "manifesto" Prairie Fire - destruction of the US and chopping it up into 4 sections to be controlled by various Communist governments.
"The Democratic death grip is about to be broken. Because we still have choices."
Not if the voting is fixed. Voter fraud is the "ace in the hole" that the Dems will pull - just like in MN with Frankin, in WA a few years ago, etc.
I may sound pessimistic, or a down-right doomsday-er, but after watching this video linked on Mark Levin's Facebook page (and of course having witnessed the outright insanity that was the 2008 election), I have serious doubts that there can be a free and honest election held in our country. (YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGZFgMNM-UU&feature=related)
ACORN is still around, doing their voter fraud dirty work; the voter rolls are not allowed to be cleaned up by removing dead people, fraudulent names, etc.; known cases of voters voting 2 or more times; the NBPP voter intimidation case being dropped after being won; and the DOJ will not investigate ANY of this due to the regime's refusal to enforce the rule of law.
I can only hope and pray that you are right. I will NOT lose hope, I will not quit. I have already chosen sides, as so many others have: I am a Constitutional Conservative who loves this great nation and the principles upon which it was founded by our Founding Fathers. But the evil intent and lawlessness of this Obama-Reid-Pelosi oligarchy and the seemingly limitless depths of depravity of the MSM and the Democrat Party are staggering.
I find it flattering that we should have penned similar blogs today, since I am a huge fan!
ReplyDeletehttp://teaparty-editor.blogspot.com/2010/07/devaluing-freedom.html
Just because Bush fouled up the country didn't mean Obama was the answer. Likewise just because Obama has proven to be inept doesn't mean Palin is the answer. Both Obama and Palin are empty political props.
ReplyDeleteEverything you said in this post resonated with me until the empty flourish of the SarahPAC spot.
Passions can provoke people to ignore their reason. Please don't make the same mistake voters made with Obama with Palin. She's as much a farce as Obama.
I echo Rowland's sentiments.
ReplyDeleteI would feel better about William Kristol were he not a neocon big government Republican nose-holder. He still advocates open-borders and amnesty even though he has for the time being joined in with the chorus calling for controlling the border first.
The Republican party has yet to tell us what they stand for other than being the "lesser" of the same evil Democrats are peddling. If it is now time to pick a side, I don't like either party. I will wait to see if the Arizona Republicans can muster up the common sense of denying McCain the nomination, even if the alternative is a steaming pile, and then make up my mind.
Were McCain to lose on August 24, it would change everything. It would give us hope to look forward to a new GOP under new leadership after November. Otherwise, we need to start thinking about treating the Dems and Reps as the same party and impose our Tea Party majority
by forming a new party.
The same GOP that we are being asked to support is the same GOP we voted out in 2006 and 2008 and was more than complicit in the crime against America that is now running us. It will accomplish nothing to put these criminal weasels back in power.
What is empty about cutting spending, supporting our military, expanding domestic oil drilling. I do agree there is a fair portion of the GOP that doesn't get the new dynamic, but don't put Palin
ReplyDeletein that category.
Rowand
ReplyDeleteOne difference between Obama and Palin. She has a real record in elected office spanning 10 yrs from 1998-2009.She is no prop. She is a self made woman with some good ideas. I would like to see her in US Senate.
I think Palin is "bashing Obama", rather than talking policy, because she believes that is the right strategy to help Republicans win in November. She gets it.
ReplyDeleteIf she doesn't start talking more substantively about policy differences after November, then I'd agree with Rowland. But I think she's trying to thread the needle between getting constitutional conservatives elected in November and seeing if she might be a viable candidate a presidential run. People like Rowland need to reserve judgment on her until after the November elections.
Bill -
ReplyDeleteI think that should be at least tens of thousands of pages of regulations, possibly hitting six figures (or more).
"Just because Bush fouled up the country..."
ReplyDeleteNever happened. The blame for fouling up the country belongs firmly on the shoulders of the Democrats, who have been pushing their socialist agenda for longer than I've been alive.
If Bush is to blame for anything, it's being too willing to go along with them.
As a pilot, it struck me that the aviation analogy to what the Dems are doing to the economy is CFIT. CFIT (controlled flight into terrain), is when a flight crew takes an aircraft, which is perfectly capable of flying, and pilots it into the ground for what are often inexplicable reasons. Unless we drag the Dems out of the cockpit, I fear our (metaphoric) landing could be soon and messy.
ReplyDeleteThe "Republicans" still don't *get it*. America is on to them....as well as the other fake "Party".
ReplyDeleteThere is only one party. The Incumbent Party. It's Big Time Wrestling. At the end of the night, Johnny America and the Golden Sheik are out together have a brewski, in some sleazy dive, on our dollar.
It isn't about who won the "bout". There was no bout. There was only a show. It's ABOUT the concession sales.
Vote them out. Vote them ALL out. EVERY single one of them. You may think that some of the players are just people like you. That's what we are supposed to think. But, in the long run, the shills are just as much a part of the Con as the principals. Just another scam artist.
Look up "scams" and "the blow off" on Google. This isn't rocket surgery folks.
I tried looking up "the blow off" on Google.
ReplyDeleteNow I feel so dirty.
It's not really about "socialism" or "command economy" as it is about rent seeking and crony capitalism (which flourish in command economies).
ReplyDeleteMuch of the Left still sorta believes in command economics, and the state as the instrument of Doing Good. That conveniently dovetails with steering goodies to themselves and their buddies: favored unions, government employees, subsidized or regulation-favored businesses.
The Republicans are still the Party of No; except that many of them are co-opted by rent-seeking business interests.
This fall is a critical battle. If Republicans don't win back Congress, the Democrats will implant their schemes deep into law and regulation. Even if Republicans do get Congress, they won't be able to repeal any of the damage the Democrats did already (Obama will veto any repeals) and the Executive will push through everything it can. And the Republicans will have to be held to the fire to follow through and actually do something about the mess.
If not - the parasitism will increase to fatal levels. The takers and fakers will take so much that the economy goes into a death spiral. The makers will start to give up. Actual productive industry will wither from capital disinvestment. People will get desperate and start trying to steal enough to survive, destroying more capital.
Quoted from and Linked to at:
ReplyDeleteRally 'Round The Flag: Total War
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It's Time To ROC 'N' ROLL:
Restore Our Constitution & Restore Our Lost Liberties
WOLVERINES!